MOVIE REVIEW: In 'Kidnap,' Halle Berry is a mom on a mission in a minivan

Friday

Aug 4, 2017 at 6:30 AM

“Kidnap” is a totally implausible cat-and-mouse showdown between a minivan-driving mama bear and a pair of Louisiana rednecks.

By Dana Barbuto/The Patriot Ledger

Never mess with a mother on a mission to save her child. She’ll crash, bite, bleed and throw down – on land and in water – with anyone who gets in the way of her speeding minivan. If you can suspend all disbelief – accept that in the age of instant information that a child can be snatched from a park and a mother can be in hot pursuit of the kidnappers and that there’s nary a police officer in sight even though she’s creating carnage galore on a New Orleans highway – then you might allow yourself to surrender to “Kidnap.” Trouble is, that’s tough to do, especially in a movie that’s rooted in contemporary reality. So it’s frustrating that an event ripe for social media plays out for hours unbeknownst to anyone. “Kidnap,” from director Luis Prieto (“Pusher”), working from a script by Knate Lee (the upcoming “X-Men: The New Mutants”), is a totally implausible cat-and-mouse showdown between a minivan-driving mama bear (Halle Berry) and a pair of Louisiana rednecks (Chris McGinn and Lew Temple). Yup, those are just a couple of the cliches in the hackneyed script. Naturally, Berry’s Karla Dyson, a waitress, is a financially struggling single mother embroiled in a bitter divorce with an ex who wants full custody of their adorable 6-year-old son, Frankie (Sage Correa).

Berry, the 2002 best-actress Oscar winner for “Monster’s Ball,” essentially plays the Liam Neeson role from “Taken.” She takes matters into her own hands after her son is abducted from a playground at City Park in New Orleans. Karla, on the phone with her lawyer, sees the boy forced into a beat-up green Mustang GT. Hauling butt on foot, she lurches onto the car, gets thrown off, flees to her own vehicle, accidentally dropping her phone in the parking lot. She shifts the red minivan into drive and becomes a one-woman wrecking crew. It’s all laughably far-fetched and unfolds with improbable speed over the course of a day. Unintentional laughs ensue in what’s supposed to be a gripping kidnap thriller, except there’s no tension or suspense. Prieto relies on intense close-ups of Berry (can’t really blame him there). She’s feral and full-throttle. Berry does most of her acting from behind the wheel and the brunt of the dialogue is between her and inanimate objects: the radio, other cars, God, a billboard.

The situation grows increasingly ridiculous with its twists and coincidences – yes, that’s the kidnapper’s clothing and Frankie’s jacket in the trash Karla just happens to pass by. And, yes, the minivan is running low on fuel. And, yes, that trucker with a CB radio can’t get a signal. The saving grace is the lean 82-minute runtime.